Something In Between
by Vol lady
Summary: Two years after Jarrod's wife's death, the family discovers he is still struggling when a woman in Stockton is murdered
1. Chapter 1

Something in Between

Chapter 1

"Jarrod – " Nick said, taking hold of his older brother's arm.

But Jarrod kept looking at Anita Fowler, lying there on the bed in front of them, the back of her head caved in, by whom or by what he didn't know. She was all Jarrod could see. Her voice was all Jarrod could hear.

Heath came into the small room upstairs from the saloon, the sheriff right behind him. Nick gave them a glance, but Jarrod didn't. Nick squeezed Jarrod's arm. Sheriff Madden asked, "Who found her?"

"All three of us," Heath said quietly. "We did, sort of. Harley McDowell came and got us and we found her here like this."

"Did you send somebody for the doc?"

Heath nodded. "Harley's gone over."

"I'll need to talk to all three of you, and Harley and Harry and the girls down there."

Heath nodded again.

Jarrod reached down and ran his hand gently over Anita's black hair. The shine was gone now. All there was was blood that ran down her neck and onto the collar of her plain dress and came off on his hand. There was also dirt on the front of her dress and her face - she had fallen.

Nick thought his older brother was in a daze. He hadn't said a word since they came in and found Anita's body. "Jarrod, come on, we should get back downstairs."

But Jarrod wasn't in a daze. His voice came out gruff, as if he was ready to growl like an animal but was holding it in. "Yeah," he said, and he turned and went out.

Jarrod didn't realize he was leaving Anita's blood along the bannister as he went downstairs, followed by Nick and Heath. Harry was at the bottom of the stairs. He knew he'd be doing a bunch of cleaning up after the sheriff was through here. Nick and Heath saw two of the other girls at a table in the back of the room, crying with each other. Just as soon as they were all at the bottom of the stairs, Harley McDowell came in with Dr. Merar. Dr. Merar headed straight upstairs.

Heath said to McDowell, "Better stick around for a bit, Harley. The sheriff's upstairs. He'll probably have some questions."

McDowell nodded and looked at Jarrod, who just walked slowly from the stairs to a table in the middle of the room. He sat down, and so did Nick, but Heath stayed on his feet for now. Harry came over to Nick and Jarrod. "You want a drink, Jarrod?" Harry asked.

Jarrod didn't respond. Nick said, "A little brandy, Harry."

"No," Jarrod said, still gruff. "I don't want anything."

Nick took a deep breath, exchanging looks with Heath. They both knew finding Anita had shaken their older brother to the core. They weren't ready for the depth of the rage that was simmering under the surface. Nick said to Jarrod, "You could use something to take the edge off, Pappy."

"No," Jarrod said, the word coming out as a growl now.

Heath sat down with them, across from Jarrod. "Jarrod - "

Jarrod looked up at him, his blue eyes black and livid, but just looking at him and Nick made the darkness leave. Jarrod took a deep breath and just closed his eyes.

Nick and Heath exchanged looks. Before now they had no idea that their brother had anything to do with Anita Fowler, but now it was obvious. He was more disturbed by this than he'd have been if she were a stranger. And Harley had come to get them at Jarrod's office and bring them over here to her – to bring Jarrod over to her. Big Brother was keeping some secret again. "Tell me," Nick said.

Jarrod didn't say anything.

"Was she a client, Jarrod?" Heath asked.

Jarrod just hung his head.

The sheriff came downstairs and talked with Harley McDowell at the bottom of the stairs for a moment. Then he came over and sat down at the table with the Barkley brothers. "Okay, I need somebody to tell me how you three came to be here and what you found when you got here."

"We were in my office," Jarrod said. "I had Nick and Heath signing some papers for me. Harley came over, told me Anita came in here from the street with a head injury. She asked him to come for me and we came over. We found her just as you saw her."

The sheriff looked at Nick and Heath. It was pretty clear they hardly knew the woman, if at all. This was something that involved only Jarrod. "How did you know her, Jarrod?"

Jarrod sighed. "I met her here, in the saloon. She was from Santa Fe, not a young girl. My age. She told me she had a husband she had left Santa Fe to get away from. She couldn't get a divorce there, so she left. Maybe he found her."

"Do you know the man?"

Jarrod shook his head. "I never saw him, to my knowledge."

The sheriff looked up at Harry, who was standing nearby. Harry shook his head, too. "I didn't even know she was married, Sheriff. She came here about a month ago looking for work. That and her name is all I know."

"She went by Anita Fowler, her maiden name," Jarrod said. "Her married name was Ordonez. I haven't seen any new Latino men in town, so if Ordonez is here, he's not anybody I've run into."

The sheriff looked up at Harry again. This time he nodded. "A Mexican I didn't know has been in here the last couple nights, but Anita didn't react to him any way I noticed. Didn't talk to him, but didn't really avoid him either."

"What did he look like?"

Harry shrugged. "Dark, like a Mexican. About five-ten. Not a flashy dresser – wore one of those short Mexican jackets, but his clothes were plain. He did wear a gold ring on the little finger of his left hand – it had a green stone in it. He never said much."

"Did he carry a handgun?"

Harry thought about it. "Yeah. Bone-handled, like Jarrod carries."

"He might not have been Ordonez," the sheriff thought out loud. Then he looked back at Jarrod. "Did Anita say anything to you about this Mexican, Jarrod?"

Jarrod shook his head. "I saw her last night. She didn't say a word, but she did seem a bit more nervous about her husband than she had been. I tried to talk to her about him, but she wouldn't let on anything more than she already had."

The sheriff got the distinct impression that Jarrod's relationship with Anita ran deeper than his brothers or anyone else in here knew. He thought that Jarrod had a lot more to say but wasn't ready to say it in front of anyone else. He looked up at Nick and Heath again as he said, "Jarrod, I'd like you to come to my office with me so you and I can talk privately."

Nick's eyes flashed. "Fred, you can't think Jarrod had anything to do with this."

But Jarrod was already standing up. "He doesn't, Nick," he said. "It's all right. Let me go talk to him and I'll be back."

Nick and Heath thought now that Anita had been a client and that Jarrod was keeping her confidences even though she was dead upstairs. They got up from the table, Heath saying, "Why don't we wait in your office for you, Jarrod?"

"All right," Jarrod said, nodding, and headed for the door. The sheriff asked Harry and Harley McDowell to stick around for an hour or so, that he'd be back. As Jarrod and the sheriff left the saloon, Nick and Heath stood watching.

Nick said, "I think Jarrod knows a lot more than he's saying."

"Maybe he can't say it in front of the rest of us," Heath said. "Maybe she was a client."

"Maybe so, but she's dead. Jarrod doesn't have to keep confidences of a client who's dead."

Heath eyed Nick. "Maybe he just isn't ready for everybody to know them, Nick. Let's go back over and finish signing those papers. He'll come back over there when he's done with the sheriff."

Nick grumbled an assent and they left.

XXXXX

"Sit down, Jarrod," the sheriff said, and as Jarrod sat down in the chair in front of his desk he sat down behind it. "Tell me everything you know about that woman."

Jarrod sighed. "I pretty much already have. She had a husband in Santa Fe, he was abusive, she got away from him and thought he was out of her life."

"Did she say anything else about him?"

"Mexican, owned a bit of land outside Santa Fe. Not gloriously wealthy, but fairly well-to-do. But she thought she was finished with him. She thought he would never come for her or send anyone after her."

"Do you have any idea who could have done this?"

Jarrod shook his head. "As far as I know, she wasn't close to anyone else at all around here. Ask Harry. She wasn't really seeing anyone else at all, not even for one night."

The sheriff eyed Jarrod, who was looking down at his hands. He weighed his next words carefully and hated to ask them, but he had to. "Nobody except you?"

Jarrod didn't even look up as he nodded. "Nobody except me."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The sheriff wasn't surprised at what Jarrod said, not really, even though he never thought of Jarrod as a man who would become involved with a saloon girl in the way he was talking about. "Look, Jarrod, I'm not judging you on this. I know how it is to lose your wife. I know what kind of needs a man still has."

Jarrod shook his head. It had been more than two years since his wife was killed. A lot of things had happened in those years that he never told anyone about. "This wasn't just physical, Fred. She was a fine woman. She wasn't a prostitute. Maybe we weren't on the edge of getting married - she and her husband are Catholic, there couldn't be a divorce anyway - but she wasn't just for physical relief either."

"Your family doesn't know about any of that."

"No," Jarrod said, "and I'd just as soon they didn't."

"Was she a client too?"

"No. Just a friend. And a lover."

Jarrod got up and walked in an aimless circle. "What else can you tell me, Jarrod?" the sheriff asked.

Jarrod stopped and shook his head. "Nothing. Look, I understand I'm probably a suspect, but talk to Harley and my brothers. Harley will tell you I was in my office with Nick and Heath when he came to get me, and Nick and Heath will tell you that the three of us came in together and had been there for at least half an hour. Whatever happened to Anita – maybe it was about me, maybe it wasn't, but I didn't do it."

Sheriff Madden nodded. "When you say it was about you – "

"Maybe whoever hit her saw us together," Jarrod said. "Maybe it was somebody her husband sent, or even her husband. I don't know. I just know I didn't do it."

"I never really thought you did," Sheriff Madden said. "Why don't you go on back to your office? You planning to be in town all day?"

Jarrod nodded. "But Nick and Heath will probably be heading out in ten or twenty minutes, as soon as they finish signing papers for me."

"Send them back over to the saloon," the sheriff said, getting up. "I'll be over there talking to Harry and Harley and the girls for a bit. I'll talk to them there too."

"All right," Jarrod said.

The two of them headed for the door and went out together. Jarrod headed for his office, but watched the sheriff go over to the saloon. Jarrod stopped for a moment, watching, expecting the doctor to have Anita carried out at any moment. He would have to talk to the undertaker sometime today and arrange a funeral for Anita. There was no one else to do it.

For a moment, Jarrod saw her shining black eyes, and her bright smile in front of him. For a moment he felt his arms around her as he pulled her close and he felt her mouth on his. He shook it away. It was all over now, all done. He would never feel her body next to his again.

Gone to him now, just like Beth.

Jarrod went back to his office and found his brothers there waiting. "We finished signing," Nick said.

Jarrod sat down behind his desk and looked over the papers. Nick and Heath had signed them all, in all the right places. "Fred wants to see you back over at the saloon," Jarrod said. "Just answer his questions honestly. I'm not on the hook for this, as far as I know, and as soon as you tell him what time we left the house and what time we got here and where we've been since, I'll be scratched off Fred's list."

"Does he have anyone else on it?"

"Not that I know of, except maybe this Ordonez fellow or whoever that Latino is," Jarrod said. "Once word starts to get around and he starts asking questions, I expect he get another suspect or two."

"Are you all right?" Heath asked.

"I'm fine," Jarrod said. He saw they were still looking at him, looking for something more. "I can't tell you all about it, but just believe me, I'm all right."

Nick and Heath got up. "Shall we tell Mother you'll be home for dinner?" Nick asked.

"Better tell her not to expect me," Jarrod said. "I've got a lot to do even without seeing the undertaker and talking to Dr. Merar, and I need to talk to Fred at least one more time."

"You're not on the hook for this, but you're involved, aren't you?" Nick asked.

Jarrod just said, "Let it alone, Nick. I'll be home when I get there."

Nick and Heath left the office then and went back across the street to Harry's saloon. They saw Sheriff Madden talking to a couple women in front of the Gaiety, but they didn't stop to hear anything. As requested, they just went on into the saloon and got a couple beers.

"Harry, do you know what might have been going on between our brother and that girl upstairs?" Nick asked. No sooner had he gotten the sentence out than the door up there opened, and Dr. Merar and two men carrying Anita Fowler on a stretcher came out and down the stairs.

Harry shook his head as they took Anita right out the door. "I saw them talking together a couple times, but that was it. I don't know if she was a client of Jarrod's or not. He's not saying?"

"No, he's not," Heath said.

"Then I suspect she was," Harry said.

"Well, she was clearly something to him," Nick said.

Sheriff Madden came in from the street and walked right over to Nick and Heath. Without any fanfare at all, he asked, "Did the three of you leave the house together this morning?"

Nick and Heath both nodded.

"What time?" the sheriff asked.

"Just after eight," Nick said.

"You came straight here?"

"Yeah. Got here just before nine and went straight to Jarrod's office."

"Did you and Jarrod split up at any time before Harley came to get you?"

"No," Nick said.

"What time did Harley come to get you?"

Nick looked to Heath. He hadn't noticed the time. "Close to ten," Heath said. "We all came right over here and found Miss Fowler here together, just as you saw her."

Sheriff Madden nodded to himself. "Did either of you two know this woman very well?"

"Not at all," Nick said. "Saw her here, but never talked to her."

"The same for me," Heath said.

The sheriff hesitated but asked the question anyway. "Are either of you familiar with your brother's relationship with her?"

Nick and Heath both straightened uncomfortably. "Not at all," Nick said. "Are you saying there was one?"

"I'm not saying anything, Nick," the sheriff said. "You two can go on home, but don't go away from the Stockton area for a while, all right?"

"All right," Heath said, and then he and Nick got out of there.

They headed toward Jarrod's office, where their horses were hitched, without talking. They both could see him behind his desk, through the big window that had his name and office locations on it. Jarrod had his back to the window. Nick and Heath stopped at their horses for a moment, then looked at each other.

"I got a bad feeling about this," Nick said.

"So do I," Heath said, "but I don't know why yet. Let's go home and get back to work."

Nick grunted, and they mounted up and rode out of town.

XXXXXXX

Jarrod had watched from his big office window as they carried Anita Fowler out of the saloon and over to Dr. Merar's office. He looked at all the people who were also watching, trying read them, trying to see if anyone looked different, out of place, suspicious, but there were just too many people. If anyone watched for a moment and slipped away, he slipped away without Jarrod seeing him.

He went back to work. A few minutes later, when he looked outside again and saw his brothers' horses were gone, he put what he was working on aside, donned his suit coat again and went over to the doctor's office. Dr. Merar wasn't really surprised to see him – he had seen the Barkley men in the saloon – but he was surprised when Jarrod said, "I'd like to see her, Doctor."

"I haven't really cleaned her up yet, Jarrod," Dr. Merar said.

"That doesn't matter," Jarrod said.

"Was she a client?"

"A friend. May I?"

Dr. Merar motioned him into the treatment room, and he went in, the doctor coming in behind him. Anita definitely wasn't cleaned up. She had been out shopping and was wearing a plain frock, but it was bloody on the shoulders, and her head lay oddly flat on the table. Her eyes were closed now, forever closed.

"May I have a moment alone, Doctor?" Jarrod asked.

"I'll be in my office," Dr. Merar said and went out, closing the door.

Jarrod stared down at her. It took a long time for it to happen, but he leaned down and kissed her. Her lips were cold, like rubber. Jarrod touched her hair, his hand shaking. He kissed those cold lips again. "I'll find him," he whispered to her. "I'll find him."

Then he wiped his eyes and his face and left the room. He poked his head into Dr. Merar's office and said, "I'm going over to the undertaker's to make arrangements," and he left in a hurry, before the doctor could see his face.

But the doctor saw.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

After he went to the undertaker's and arranged for Anita's burial, Jarrod went back over to Sheriff Madden's office. He found the sheriff alone there. He found a pot of coffee on the stove. Jarrod poured himself half a cup. Sheriff Madden hadn't said a word and neither had Jarrod, but finally Jarrod said, "Any luck?"

"Not yet," the sheriff said. "Anita was already hit in the head when she came up to Harley in the saloon. Harley offered to help her to her room, but she said she was all right and sent him to come get you. Then it looks like she went to her room and died."

"Any chance this was accidental?" Jarrod asked. "Like maybe she fell?"

"Not from the looks of it. According to Dr. Merar, she was hit with the butt of a handgun."

Jarrod was surprised. "Handgun?"

The sheriff nodded. "There's an indentation looks a lot like that."

"And nobody saw anything?"

"A couple of women said they saw her coming out of the alley that runs next to your building and she looked a bit unsteady, but they didn't look closely at her and didn't see she was hurt," the sheriff said. "And there was something else that might be pertinent. She had a key in her reticule. It wasn't a key to her room or anything else in Harry's place. Do you know what it might have been a key to?" Sheriff Madden eyed Jarrod carefully.

Jarrod finished his coffee. Without looking up at the sheriff, he nodded and said, "There's one more place you need to look. I'm sorry, I should have told you about it before. I don't know why I didn't. I just thought it needed to wait until you were finished with everything at the saloon."

"Tell me now," the sheriff said.

"There's a room," Jarrod said. "Anita had some things there. I haven't gone over there today. I want you to see it at the same time I do, just in case there's something there."

"All right," Sheriff Madden said.

In only a few minutes, Jarrod was unlocking the door three steps below an alley to a back room in the building his office was in. The sheriff had known the room was here. He always assumed it was a storage room and part of the basement, but when Jarrod opened the door and motioned him in ahead of him, the sheriff discovered it was something else.

Jarrod left the door open just a little so they could see. It was a fairly large room, maybe the entire basement of the building. There were a couple small windows, high on the wall to the alley, covered by curtains. There was a stairway that led up to the main part of the building and a tiny wc off to the back, closed off by curtains that were open at the moment rather than by walls. There were some boxes stacked up against a far wall – they each had a marking of "JTB" and a number on the side.

Closer to where they were standing, there was a bed.

Jarrod closed the door as the sheriff stood looking around. The light was not good, so Jarrod lit a small lamp on a table beside the bed. There was also a small dresser nearby. The room was clean and tidy, not really looking like a basement at all. It looked entirely like something else. The sheriff understood right away. It was obvious what Jarrod was showing him.

"Tell me I'm looking at what I think I'm looking at, Jarrod," the sheriff said.

Jarrod said, "You are. The key you found in Anita's reticule fits the door and the one at the top of the stairs. She and I are the only ones who had keys at the moment. Everybody else thinks I store old files down here – which I do, but they're not what you want to see. You need to go through the drawers in that dresser. We both had some things there."

Sheriff Madden felt very awkward about his next question. "Just you and Anita?"

Jarrod nodded. "Right now, yes."

"Who else and over what period of time?"

"Fred, do you really – " Jarrod stopped and caught himself. "Of course you do. A woman I brought here has been murdered and any of the others may be involved or worse yet, may be in danger. Of course you need to know who they were." Jarrod gave the sheriff three other names and dates that were between three and fourteen months old. "But nothing of theirs should be here now."

The sheriff began looking through the dresser, but he felt sick about it. The things he was seeing were the most personal things Anita Fowler would have had – and the most personal Jarrod would have had. Jarrod had a life here that the sheriff never knew about, a life a lot of men had and would have kept very secret. If Anita hadn't been killed, Jarrod's life here would still be very secret. Sheriff Madden went through the things in the drawers, found a few things that were clearly Anita's. He took them aside and put them on the bed.

"Are these all Anita's?" the sheriff asked.

Jarrod nodded. "Yeah."

"You go through those drawers and pull out anything that isn't yours."

"I watched you, Fred. Everything still in there is mine."

"Jarrod, I'm gonna ask you for your key to this room, and I don't want you to take any of your things or anything else out of here until I get this all cleared up," the sheriff said.

Jarrod handed over the key, nodding. "Fred, I hope you can keep this to yourself."

Sheriff Madden said, "I will as long as I can, but if there's anything here among Anita's things that's involved in her death, it might be tough. I take it your family doesn't know anything about this."

"They don't," Jarrod said.

"I'll keep it that way, but maybe you ought to consider coming clean with them, just in case things get out of hand."

Jarrod nodded. "I'll think it over."

XXXXXX

Jarrod did think it over – hard, all the rest of the day. When he finally got home, it was after ten o'clock, and he was hoping like crazy that no one was up, because he wasn't ready to talk about this yet, especially not to either of the women. But luck was not with him. Everyone was still up, in the living room, waiting for him.

Nick and Heath were playing cribbage but stopped when Jarrod came in. Jarrod left his hat on the table in the foyer and came into the living room, and he suddenly felt so horrible, so dirty that he didn't even know what to say.

But then he saw Anita in his mind's eye again, and he could not feel dirty about her. She was soft, kind, honest – not a woman who deserved any bad thoughts around her. If his thoughts were bad, they had to be about himself. The confusion in his heart showed on his face.

"Are you all right, Jarrod?" his mother asked.

Nick and Heath got up but stayed where they were.

"I'm fine," Jarrod said. He looked at Nick and Heath.

"We told them what happened," Nick said.

Jarrod nodded. He had decided he was not going to say anything more about Anita, not tonight anyway. He didn't want to go where that was going to lead. "I'm pretty sure I know who did it. I plan to find out everything I can tomorrow and nail that down, and if it is the man I think it was, and if he's left town – and I think he has – I'm going after him."

"Not alone, you're not," Nick said.

Jarrod nodded. "Come along if you want. This isn't any vendetta. I'm gonna find him and take him to the law to handle."

"But you'll kill him if you have to," Heath added.

Jarrod eyed him, nodding calmly. "If it comes to that, to defend myself, but it's not what I'm aiming to do. I'm aiming to let the law take care of him."

"And if the law won't?" Heath said, giving words to what everyone was thinking.

Jarrod shook his head. "This isn't what you're afraid of."

"Well," Nick said, "I expect we better get some rest if we're heading out tomorrow." He and Heath headed for the stairs.

Audra looked at her mother, who was staring straight at her oldest brother. "I'm heading to bed too," she said, and kissed her mother on the cheek. "Good night, Mother," she said, and then she kissed Jarrod. "Good night, Jarrod."

That left Victoria and her first born standing there alone in the living room. Jarrod thought he would have trouble looking her in the eye, but he didn't. As soon as everyone was out of earshot, he just said, "She was a friend, Mother. She meant something to me. I can't just let it lie."

"A friend," Victoria said. "I wouldn't ask any further if I wasn't worried about what you're planning to do."

"I told you. I'm going to find the man I think killed her, and I'm going to bring him in. I don't intend to kill him, but if it comes to that and I have to, I will."

"You didn't answer Heath's question. What do you plan to do if they law won't keep him?"

Jarrod hesitated, but he said, "Nothing. If the law won't handle him, I plan to let it go."

"Can you hold to that?"

"Nick and Heath will be with me, Mother. This is not a vendetta. What happened after Beth – it won't happen this time."

"I won't pry any further, Jarrod," Victoria said. "I just hope you know you can come to me if you need more help than you're already asking for, and I hope you'll recognize the time if it comes."

Jarrod sighed. "Some things I have to keep to myself, Mother, for one reason or another. You know that. Just don't think I'd do anything to hurt you or anyone in the family. That's not what this is about. Anita wasn't Beth."

"But Beth still has a hold on your heart, and she always will, I know. She'll always influence you whether you think she does or not."

Jarrod stepped toward his mother, took her by the arms and kissed her. "Beth's influence over me now is gentle, quiet and calm. I'm moving on in my way. I cared for Anita. She was a friend. She was important to me. But it's Beth in my heart, and she'll keep me on an even keel. I will do everything I can to bring in Anita's killer. I will not hurt him unless I have no choice."

Jarrod realized how complicated that sounded, and he realized it was even more complicated than that. He wouldn't talk about the rest of it tonight. He probably never would. But he smiled gently and kissed his mother again.

Victoria smiled quietly. "All right, Jarrod. All right. Get some sleep, and don't leave in the morning without saying good-bye."

Jarrod put his arm around her and she put her arm around him. Together, they headed up the stairs.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Breakfast was quiet the next morning, and Jarrod and his brothers left for town early. Stockton was still quiet and empty when they got there. Nick and Heath went to the Stockton House café for coffee while Jarrod went up to his office to catch up on work he had to neglect the day before. Then he planned to start asking around about this Latino, where he might have gone, if in fact he was gone.

Jarrod found a note tucked under his door, from the sheriff. All it said was "need to see you first thing." Jarrod shoved it into his pocket. It was still too early for the sheriff to be in his office, so Jarrod just dug into some work he needed to get out of the way before he did anything else. Then he went for some coffee.

Nick and Heath were still in the cafe, and Jarrod joined them. They hadn't talked much about anything yet, but now Nick felt like he had to. "How do you plan for this day to go?"

"I'm not sure yet," Jarrod said. "I need to see Fred."

That was about all he said.

The sheriff came in while they were drinking coffee. He sat down with them. "We need to talk, Jarrod," he said. Then he looked at Nick and Heath and said, "Privately."

"I got your note," Jarrod said. "I was about to come to your office."

"Are you about done?"

"Yes. Let's go. Nick, Heath, I'll meet you later here or up in my office."

Jarrod left money for his coffee and a tip, and in fewer than five minutes, the sheriff led him into his office and closed the door. Jarrod didn't sit down.

Neither did the sheriff. He just said, "I talked to Mary Ann Dorsett yesterday. Her husband is not a happy man."

"Fred, I never spent any time at all with Mary Ann after she got married. No one I was with was married at the time," Jarrod said.

"Except Anita."

Jarrod nodded. "Except Anita."

"Mary Ann said she and you were done before she got married, but Bert is still livid," Sheriff Madden said. "He threw her out."

Jarrod slumped. "Where did she go?"

"She spent the night at the hotel and was on the morning train to Carson City to go to her sister's there. Jarrod, Bert could be trouble for you. I read him the riot act, but you know Bert. He has a temper."

"You don't think he had anything to do with Anita, do you?"

"I don't know. He seemed completely surprised to find out about you and Mary Ann."

"You told him?"

"She did. He came in the house while we were talking and she told him everything."

"He didn't hurt her."

"No. Just threw her things right out the front door. I took her to the hotel. There's something else you better look out for, too, Jarrod. After this, your – experiences – over the last couple years may come out in public. Bert might start talking."

Jarrod nodded. He really didn't think Bert Dorsett would spread around the notion that he thought he'd been cuckolded, but Jarrod was still troubled, not so much for himself as for the women he'd been involved with. One dead, one cast off like garbage. "What about Olivia and Marie?"

"Marie moved back to Kansas City a month ago. i didn't know she was gone until her landlady told me. Olivia is out of town, visiting her mother in Lodi. I don't think she's involved with anyone at the moment, so there shouldn't be anyone coming after you. Jarrod – I know what you've been through, losing your wife and all. But you'd better change your ways. Toe the line, because if Bert Dorsett doesn't come after you, somebody else down the line will. Or maybe worse – you'll be fodder for the newspaper and your career will disappear overnight."

Jarrod nodded. He understood. "What about Anita? Have you come up with anything new?"

"That Mexican was going by the name of Diego Torres, and he left on a stage for Modesto yesterday. I've wired the sheriff down there that we want to talk to him, but I haven't heard back."

"I wonder why he didn't take the train," Jarrod said.

"Who knows? I'll bet he won't be staying in Modesto, though. If he is connected to Anita's husband, he'll be heading back to Santa Fe or even Mexico as soon as he can. We'll lose him."

Frustrated, Jarrod threw an imaginary glass onto the floor and broke it. "We gotta find him, Fred. I know he's the one."

"How do you know?"

"He's the only one that makes any sense."

"Just because he's Latino?"

"No, because he's Latino and he came into town and left days later and in the middle of his being here the wife of a Latino was murdered. I'm going after him, Fred."

"Jarrod – "

"I won't be alone. Nick and Heath will be with me. I intend to take him to the law and have him questioned."

"Well, I wish you luck, because I really doubt we'll be able to find out where he's going."

"Are you giving up on Anita? Are you gonna let her murder go unsolved?"

"I might not have any choice in the end. But no, I haven't given up yet. Somebody saw where she came from with that blood on her. Somebody saw something. I'll keep working on it."

"All right," Jarrod said, deciding. "If you hear from the Modesto sheriff and you can get him to find Torres and hold him, tell him I'm on my way to help him question the man. I'll round up Nick and Heath and we'll head down there on the afternoon train today."

"What if Torres slipped away?"

"Then I'll find out where he went. Between me and Nick and Heath, we'll find Torres."

Sheriff Madden sighed. "All right. But from now on, Jarrod, just go to Big Annie's like everybody else, all right?"

Jarrod wasn't ready to accept that as his only option, but for now, he let it go. He left and headed back to the cafe.

XXXXXXX

The three o'clock train south took the Barkley brothers to Modesto, arriving before nightfall. They traveled in virtual silence. Jarrod was completely focused on what needed to be done, and he had nothing at all to say. Nick and Heath kept quiet to keep from disturbing him. When they arrived at Modesto, Jarrod headed straight for the sheriff's office, and Nick and Heath followed along.

The sheriff looked up from his work at his desk when they came in. He knew Jarrod Barkley on sight, and he had gotten a wire from Sheriff Madden saying they were coming. He sat up in his chair and said, "I got Fred Madden's wire, and I'm sorry, I don't have any idea where this Torres fellow is. For all I know he stayed on the stage and kept going."

"Have you looked around town?" Jarrod asked. "Did you check with the stage agent?"

The sheriff nodded. "I did. He didn't know if Torres got off here or not. If you want to find out for sure, you're gonna have to get horses and chase the stage further south, all the way to Fresno if you want to."

Jarrod turned circles, thinking. Nick said, "If Torres got off here, he's either still around or he got a horse and rode out someplace."

"If he's from Santa Fe, that may be what he did," Jarrod said. "Either that or he got the train here and kept on going to the connection to the eastbound."

"I'll check the livery," Heath said.

Jarrod nodded. "I'll check the train and Nick, you check around town. We'll meet back here in an hour. Heath, if he got a horse, get horses for us. We'll go after him."

XXXXXX

In less than an hour, Heath had learned that Torres had, in fact, bought a horse at the livery and headed south again. The only reason Jarrod could think of for the switch in transportation was to throw off whoever might be following him. It was beginning to get dark, but there was a partial moon tonight that would give them enough light to travel a bit longer. After getting some food for the road, they were on their way.

They were able to track the Mexican but did not come across him at all before they knew they had to stop for the night. They made camp, ate in silence, and turned in just past midnight. Heath kept the first watch, but everything was quiet. At about three, he woke Nick to relieve him.

Nick yawned and got up and after taking care of himself and stoking the fire, he sat down next to Heath on a rock. "You gonna turn in?"

"Yeah, in a minute," Heath said.

Jarrod was lying on the ground, his back to them. Nick said quietly, "He's not asleep. He'd be snoring if he was."

Heath said, very quietly, "We both know what this is all about, don't we?"

"Yeah," Nick said. "Pappy never did share much about his love life with anybody, and since Beth he's been even more tight-lipped. We both know how bad he got burned. Something in him has never been the same."

Heath heaved a sigh. "I believe him, though. He's not out to kill this Latino. He's out to bring him in."

"Yeah, I believe him too, but I don't want him to go slipping off the edge despite his good intentions, not without us there to catch him."

Heath said, "I expect that's why he okayed us coming along."

"I expect," Nick agreed.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

They were up and moving again at dawn and found that Torres's tracks were still heading south. When they started out from Modesto, they figured the man had a good seven to ten hours start on them, but now it looked like they had closed the gap. Torres was not traveling like he thought someone was dogging him. He was moving at a speed that said he was safe and on his way home.

And then he abruptly turned west.

"Well, I don't get that," Nick said as Heath stood up from examining the tracks.

"Neither do I," Heath said, "unless he's gonna catch a ship somewhere."

"Santa Cruz," Jarrod said. "Small ships put in at Santa Cruz and sail to Mexico."

"That would make sense," Nick said.

Heath mounted up. "Well, let's see where he goes."

They took off at a slightly faster clip, verifying all the way that Torres was heading to Santa Cruz. They did not catch up to him by the time they reached the highlands east of town, though. They looked down on the place, saw one ship in the harbor, and Nick said, "We better hurry up."

They moved even faster, heading down to the waterfront still several miles away. Before long they were there, dismounted and hitched up. Jarrod led the way onto the ship and was the first to confront the man watching freight being loaded on.

"Hey, hey," the man said as Jarrod and his brothers came on deck. "Que passa aqui? Quien es?"

Jarrod spoke to him in Spanish. "My name is Jarrod Barkley. This is Nick Barkley and Heath Barkley. We're looking for a man named Diego Torres."

"I have no such man on this ship," the man said.

"Have you taken on any passengers at all? He's a Mexican, about five-ten, wears a gold ring with a green stone on his left hand."

"Are you with the law? Do you have authority to come aboard this ship?"

"I'll get it," Jarrod said. "Do you have such a man on this ship?"

The sailor looked from Jarrod, to Nick, to Heath and back to Jarrod again. "No. There is no such man on this ship."

Jarrod didn't believe him. Nick and Heath didn't either, but Nick took hold of Jarrod's arm before he could start protesting. "Jarrod, let's go see the sheriff."

Jarrod was worried this ship would be leaving before they could get the law on their side, but Heath had noticed how much freight they still had to load. "We have time, Jarrod," Heath said and nodded toward the dock where the freight to be loaded sat.

Jarrod turned and led his brothers off the ship. He had been here before and knew where the sheriff's office was. Without a word, he started walking down the street. His brothers had to hustle to keep up with him, but they did, and in only a few minutes they were outside the sheriff's office.

Jarrod led the way in. He knew this sheriff, too, although it wasn't under the best of circumstances. Jarrod had successfully defended a man against a bank robbery charge here. The sheriff hadn't liked the vehemence in Jarrod's cross-examination, but that had been nearly ten years earlier. Jarrod hoped, when he saw the sheriff was the same one as before, that the man's resentment had worn off.

He wasn't so lucky. The sheriff, sweeping the floor of his office, stopped and eyed Jarrod as he came in the door. "Well, Mr. Barkley," he said. "I thought I might be seeing you again, though I thought it would be long before now. What do you want?"

Jarrod said, "These are my brothers. We're looking for a man wanted for questioning in connection with a murder in Stockton."

"Are you deputized?"

"No," Jarrod said. "We don't intend to take him to Stockton. We intend to bring him to you."

That surprised the sheriff a bit, and he became a bit more cooperative. He put the broom back in the corner. "Who's the man?"

"He's going by Diego Torres," Jarrod said. "Mexican, wearing plain clothes. He has a gold ring with a green stone on his left hand. We suspect he's about to take that ship in the harbor off to Mexico. I'd like you to go get him before they can sail."

"Are you sure he's on that ship?"

"No," Jarrod admitted. "We just arrived and haven't had time to look around town."

"Well, I'll tell you what," the sheriff said. "You look around town and bring the man to me, if you find him and he'll come. I don't want any gunplay though. I'll arrest you if I find you're responsible for any."

Jarrod nodded. "Understood. If we find him and he won't come, I'll have my brothers keep an eye on him and I'll come get you."

"That ship won't be leaving for several hours. If you can't find your man in town, I'll go see if they'll cooperate if he's on board. But nobody has to, not if you're not deputized and carrying warrants."

"He's only wanted for questioning, Sheriff," Nick said. "There was no reason to get a warrant on him."

The sheriff nodded. "I just want to resolve this peacefully. You go check around, see what you can find out. I'll cooperate to the extent I can."

Jarrod nodded and left. Nick and Heath followed him again. Jarrod began walking fast up the street toward the nearest saloon. "This is a big town," Heath said as he and Nick caught up with him. "We can't cover it all before that ship leaves, and he might already be on board."

"He might not be," Nick said. "He was moving along pretty easy. If he doesn't think he's being followed and the ship doesn't leave for several hours, he's probably nursing a cerveza somewhere."

"Exactly," Jarrod said. "We'll hit the places around here. That's where he's likely to be if he's not on board. I'll take the Swan here. Nick, take that place up there on the left, Heath take the place on the right and we'll meet in the street in three minutes. Three minutes!"

Jarrod ducked into the Swan and Nick and Heath moved on to the two other places Jarrod pointed out. In three minutes they were meeting in the street, none of them having found Torres. They continued up the street in the same fashion until finally, in a place called Juano's, Jarrod saw Diego Torres drinking a beer in the back of the room.

Torres saw him, too, and Jarrod knew right away that Torres knew who he was.

Jarrod fixed a glare on the man and stepped back outside. Nick and Heath were further up the street, about to enter two other bars. Jarrod called after them, and they came running back. The three Barkley brothers met together in front of Juano's just as Torres came out.

"Wait for a moment," Jarrod said to the man in Spanish. "We want to talk to you, Senor Torres."

"Who are you?" Torres asked. "What do you want with me?"

"We're taking you to the sheriff to answer some questions about an incident in Stockton," Jarrod said. "We won't take up much of your time."

Torres looked uneasy. He said, "My boat leaves in only a few hours."

"We won't take that long," Jarrod said and moved his arm to usher Torres in front of him. "If you please, Senor."

Torres walked down the street toward the sheriff's office, and in a few minutes, they all walked in through the door. The sheriff was finishing up his sweeping. He looked surprised to see them back again so soon. "So, this is your man?" he asked in English.

"Diego Torres," Torres said, and also spoke in English after that. "I demand to know why these men have brought me here to answer questions about something I know nothing about."

The sheriff pulled a chair out away from the wall, saying to Torres, "Have a seat. This shouldn't take long." And as Torres sat down, the sheriff said, "Ask your questions, Mr. Barkley."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Where's your gun?" was the first thing Jarrod asked, because Torres wasn't wearing one.

Torres looked at his side, where the gun should have been. There was a moment before he answered, "I sold it to buy my passage on the ship."

Torres's hesitation made Jarrod think the answer was made up on the spot and Torres had disposed of the murder weapon. "Why did you come to Stockton last week?" Jarrod asked next.

Torres's shrugged. "I was passing through."

"From where to where?"

"I began my visit to your country in San Francisco. I then went to Sacramento, then passed through Stockton, then came here to return home."

"How long were you in Stockton?"

"Three or four days."

"Which is it – three or four?"

Torres was beginning to be irritated. "Four."

Irritation was what Jarrod was going for. "Where were you the morning of the ninth?"

Torres hesitated again. "At what time?"

"All morning. What time did you get up? Where were you staying? Where did you go and when?"

Torres hesitated again and finally said. "I stayed at the Stockton House. I woke up, I got dressed, I had breakfast at the café. I walked around town. I had lunch."

"You walked around town?"

"I came to Stockton to see what it was like, so I looked around."

"You stayed four days just to see what it was like?"

"Yes. Sheriff, what is this all about? If this man is accusing me of something, I want to know what it is."

"Man's got a right," the sheriff said to Jarrod.

Jarrod said, "A woman was murdered on the morning of the ninth. You don't seem to have much of an alibi for that morning."

"I did not know I was going to need one!"

"Don't you want to know who the woman was?"

"Why should I want to know? I had nothing to do with it!"

"How did you travel from Stockton to here?"

"On horseback."

"From Stockton to here, on horseback?"

Torres hesitated again, almost saying "yes," but then he said. "I took a stage coach to Modesto and on horseback from there."

"Why? Why a stage to Modesto when the train would have been faster?"

"I did not have the money for the train."

"But you had the money to buy a horse in Modesto."

"I told you, I sold my gun."

"For passage on the boat AND to buy a horse? It must have been one fine gun."

"It was."

"I'm told it was like the one I carry. Mine's a nice gun, but nice enough to buy passage on a boat and a horse, I don't think so. Tell me why you didn't take the stage any further than Modesto."

"I did not have the money! I sold my gun in Modesto!"

"Heath – " Jarrod said. "What time did the liveryman say Mr. Torres here bought his horse?"

Heath said, "He said he bought it at about three in the afternoon and rode straight out."

"Three in the afternoon," Jarrod said. "The stage from Stockton gets to Modesto at two fifty or so, so you had ten minutes to sell your gun and get to the livery stable. That's awfully fast to find a buyer and sell a gun."

"Sheriff, if you intend to charge me with a crime, please do it now, or I will leave to take my boat back to Mexico," Torres finally said, and he clammed up.

"I don't have anything I can charge you with, Mr. Torres," the sheriff said. "You're free to leave."

Jarrod was boiling over, but neither he nor his brothers got in the man's way as he went out. As soon as he was gone, Jarrod said, "Nick, Heath, keep an eye on Torres. Don't interfere with him in any way, just stay with him so we know where he's going."

"Where are you going?" the sheriff asked.

"To see the judge about getting a warrant," Jarrod said and went out the door.

Nick and Heath followed him and watched him head up the street toward the courthouse. Torres was going the other direction, down to the waterfront. Nick and Heath stayed with him, as Jarrod requested.

"How's Jarrod gonna know where we've gone?" Heath asked.

"He already knows," Nick said. "Torres is gonna get on the boat as fast as he can. Once he gets on there, it might be hard to get him off."

"We're gonna have one upset big brother if that happens."

"I'm not gonna feel very good about it myself," Nick said, and they kept following Torres to the waterfront.

XXXXXXX

About half an hour later, Jarrod turned up at the wharf where the ship was docked, the sheriff with him. Jarrod joined his brothers and stayed back as the sheriff went up the gangplank and onto the ship.

"You got your warrant?" Nick asked.

"It took some fancy talking, but I got it," Jarrod said.

"So what happens now?" Heath asked. "What charge is Torres arrested on?"

"Suspicion of murder," Jarrod said.

Nick whistled. "How the heck did you get the judge to issue a warrant on the lousy evidence we have?"

"You don't need enough evidence to convict before you arrest somebody, Nick," Jarrod said. "Since Torres couldn't account for his actions the morning Anita was killed, and since his account of where his gun went was nearly incredible, the judge is allowing him to be arrested and held for further questioning."

"How long can he be held?" Heath asked.

"Forty-eight hours," Jarrod said. "If we don't have something to get an indictment on by then, the sheriff will have to let him go. I've just bought us some time. There's still work to do."

"What are we gonna do?" Heath asked.

"You and Nick are gonna get to the nearest railhead and get back to Stockton as fast as you can. You're gonna talk to the sheriff, and get a warrant from the judge up there," Jarrod said. "Fred might have something more to hang it on by now."

"What if he doesn't?" Nick asked.

"I'll be down here asking Senor Torres more questions," Jarrod said. "I'll wire Fred as soon as I have more out of him. And don't ask what we're going to do if I can't get more. Between Fred and me, we'll have it."

"IF Torres is our man," Nick said.

Jarrod nodded, but he said, "Torres is our man. I'd bet my career on it." And then he suddenly thought about what Sheriff Madden had said about that career – it could be gone in a flash if word of his secret life got out. Maybe his career wasn't worth all that much right now after all, but Jarrod put that aside. He knew in his heart of hearts that he had the right man.

The sheriff came off the ship, walking down the gangplank with Torres walking in front of him. As they reached the Barkley brothers, Torres let go with a string of unrepeatable words in Spanish that Jarrod had heard from angry men before. Jarrod just smiled.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Nick and Heath were not too keen on leaving Jarrod alone in Santa Cruz, but Jarrod insisted they both needed to go back to Stockton as quickly as possible. He gave them instructions and his reasoning – they were to get to the nearest railhead and then split up, one of them going by rail, the other by stage, just in case one mode of transportation went down. It was insurance that one of them would get to Stockton in time. Once whoever got there first got the warrant, he could have a wire sent from the court to the court in Santa Cruz that the warrant had been issued and then take off for Santa Cruz with the official copy of the warrant. Jarrod knew he was being extra cautious, insisting they do it this way, but he was afraid if that 48 hours went by and Torres had to be released, the man would be on the next boat out and never be seen again.

Jarrod reassured his brothers that he was not, to use Nick's words, "gonna go crazy on Torres and kill the man." "Nick, if I was gonna kill him I'd just kill him now and be done with it," Jarrod said. His brothers believed him on that, and it settled their minds somewhat. They were mounted and off within five minutes of the Santa Cruz sheriff locking Torres up.

Jarrod watched them go and went back into the sheriff's office. The sheriff had locked Torres away and was standing next to his desk, just looking at Jarrod. "Now what?" he asked.

"I'm gonna take a few minutes and get a place to stay," Jarrod said. "Then I'm gonna get a full stomach and spend some time getting together the questions I want to ask this man. I don't plan to waste your time, sheriff. I plan to have Torres on his way back to Stockton, legally, to face charges before those 48 hours go by."

"Well, you'd better, Barkley," the sheriff said, "because if this doesn't work out that way, I am not gonna want to see you in Santa Cruz ever again."

Jarrod nodded that he understood, and he headed out for the nearest hotel. In only a few more minutes, he had a room and was getting some food into him at the hotel's café. Then he sat there, drinking coffee, and thinking and writing.

Then he heard the gunshots.

He and everyone else in the place ran outside to see what was happening. People were in the street, looking around, looking at each other. Jarrod immediately looked toward the sheriff's office. He saw the sheriff in the street in front of it, looking off toward the road going south, a gun in his hand.

Jarrod ran as fast as he could, catching up with the sheriff as the lawman went back into his office. Jarrod went in after him, and exactly what he feared was true. Torres was gone. The sheriff was also favoring his right arm.

"What happened?" Jarrod asked.

"I was taking him out to the necessary when he smashed the door into me and took off, on my horse," the sheriff said. "I'll go after him."

Jarrod saw blood on the sheriff's sleeve. "No. You get that arm tended to first. I'll go after him. You can get a posse up and follow us."

"Wait," the sheriff said. He reached into his desk and pulled out handcuffs and the key, which he gave to Jarrod, saying, "You're deputized. My horse has a chipped shoe on the front left. That ought to help you track him if you need to. I'll be with a posse as soon as I get this arm fixed up."

Jarrod didn't wait to hear anything else. His horse was still hitched a block or two away, closer to the waterfront. He ran for it and was mounted and off down the south road as fast as he could go, swearing to himself under his breath.

XXXXXXX

When Nick and Heath split up, they tossed a coin. Nick went by rail and Heath went by stage. Nick had to ride several more miles to get to a rail connection than Heath did to get to a stage, but it was still a long ride to Stockton either way. The train being faster, Nick arrived first, very early the next morning, so early the town was hardly moving, but he went to the sheriff's office first, in case Fred Madden was up and around.

He was. He looked very unhappy. "Glad you're here," he said even if he wasn't. He handed Nick a telegram. "This came last night."

Nick read it, and slumped. It was from the Santa Cruz sheriff. It explained Torres had escaped and Jarrod was after him and a posse following. "Damn it all," Nick swore. He was good and worried now, Jarrod alone after Torres who just as good as confessed to killing Anita.

"Where's Heath?" the sheriff asked.

"Coming by stage," Nick said. "Jarrod wanted to be sure one of us would get here and didn't trust either the train or the stage to be on time. We only have a little more than 24 hours to get the warrant and get back there – but I guess that's all out the window now."

"If this Torres fella bolted, he'll be wanted in Santa Cruz now, too."

"I'm still gonna want that warrant, Fred. I'm still gonna try to make the afternoon train and get back there by morning. Will you help me?"

"Sure, as soon as the courthouse opens we'll go see a judge and see if he'll give us one. Now that Torres has tried to escape, I don't think we'll have any trouble. But there's something else I have to talk to you about, too."

Nick sighed. "What?"

"About Jarrod. About this whole thing. About a couple other things too."

"Can't it wait?"

"Bert Dorsett's beginning to be a problem for Jarrod, and he's not here to address it."

Now Nick was confused. "Bert Dorsett? What's he got to do with any of this?"

The sheriff sighed. He didn't like bringing any of this up without Jarrod here, but he really didn't feel like he had the choice. "Nick – you're not gonna like what I have to say, but I'll bet it's not gonna surprise you much either."

XXXXXXX

Heath arrived a few hours later, just in time to see Nick and the sheriff coming back toward the sheriff's office, warrant for Torres's arrest in hand. They stopped to meet Heath at the stage depot. "Got the warrant," Nick said right away.

"Then why do you look so miserable?" Heath asked.

"I got about a dozen reasons," Nick said. "Come on. Let's go to the sheriff's office."

"We better get back to Santa Cruz," Heath said.

"Maybe not," Nick said. "Come on."

Confused, Heath followed along to the sheriff's office, where the sheriff showed him the wire from the sheriff in Santa Cruz. Heath looked it over, thought about it, and said, "I don't think this ought to change our plan. We gotta count on Jarrod bringing Torres back in down there fairly quickly – or are you worried he won't bring him in?"

"I'm worried about a lot of things," Nick said.

The sheriff said, "I'll wire down to there that we have the warrant. That ought to take care of the 48 hour problem."

"But Jarrod is still out on the trail after Torres," Heath said.

Nick and the sheriff both nodded. "We got a problem here, too," Nick said.

"What kind of problem?" Heath asked.

Sheriff Madden sighed. "I told Jarrod I'd try to keep this quiet, but Bert Dorsett isn't going to let me."

"Bert Dorsett?" Heath asked. "What's he got to do with anything?"

The sheriff looked at Nick, who looked distinctly uneasy, but Nick said, "Jarrod was having an affair with Anita Fowler, and she wasn't the only one since Beth died. Mary Ann Dorsett was one of his affairs, too. Bert just found out. Mary Ann's left to go to her sister's, and Bert's starting to let some of the news about Jarrod and his wife go trickling out."

"Jarrod said his affair with Mary Ann was over before she and Bert got married, but that doesn't seem to mean anything to Bert," the sheriff said. "And he doesn't seem to care that this looks bad on him, too. I can't keep the lid on it anymore."

"Well, who's gonna care if Jarrod was seeing Mary Ann before she married Bert?" Heath asked.

"Probably nobody, if they believe Jarrod, but there's more," the sheriff said. "Jarrod's been keeping a private little apartment in the building his office is in."

Heath moaned. Jarrod was doing more than "seeing" Mary Ann or Anita.

The sheriff said, "And there were at least two other women here in Stockton he's taken there. Your brother's gotten out of control – although now he might get himself back together, I don't know. But I have to try to get the lid on Bert, and you have to talk this over with your mother before she hears it some other way."

"I'd rather Jarrod do the talking," Nick muttered.

"Well, he's not here, and it's not gonna wait until he gets back," the sheriff said. "And I'm not the one who ought to talk to her. It needs to come from one of you."

Nick and Heath looked at each other. How in the world were they going to deal with this and Jarrod going after Torres too? They saw it in each other's eyes right away.

Nick took a coin out of his pocket. "Call it."

"Hold on a minute," Sheriff Madden said, looking out the window. "You won't have to choose. Your mother just pulled up."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Jarrod had ridden all night, following Torres's tracks as best he could in what moonlight there was, but it seemed pretty clear pretty fast that Torres was riding all night, too. Jarrod was tired and just about done in when he spotted a faint fire by the side of the road up ahead, just before dawn. He slowed, then dismounted and tethered his horse to a tree. Checking to make sure he had the handcuffs, he took his sidearm out of his holster and moved carefully and quietly toward the fire.

He got a look at Torres there from around a rock in the road. The man must have thought he was safe enough to stop to rest, because he was on the ground. Jarrod wasn't sure why he bothered with a fire – he didn't have any water or coffee with him, or anything else to cook. Maybe it was just to keep warm or chase the unfriendly animals away. He apparently had given up on any unfriendly humans catching him.

Jarrod looked carefully before he approached the man, to make sure he was alone, and as best as Jarrod could tell, he was. Jarrod moved slowly, quietly. He saw that Torres was unarmed. He stopped about ten feet away from the man and cocked his pistol.

On his side with his back to Jarrod, Torres flinched a little at the sound but otherwise did not move. "Roll over and do it peacefully," Jarrod said, in Spanish so he wouldn't be misunderstood.

Torres did as he was told, and then he just lay there, looking up at Jarrod in the firelight.

"You killed her," Jarrod said. "You killed Anita."

"I did nothing," Torres said.

Jarrod said, "Get up and stand right where you are."

Torres did as he was told. He had not unsaddled his horse, was just lying on the ground using his jacket for a pillow. "May I get my jacket?" he asked.

"No," Jarrod said. "Hands together in front of you."

Torres obeyed, and he didn't give Jarrod any trouble as Jarrod put the handcuffs on. Jarrod kept his gun on him as he stamped out the fire, unhitched the sheriff's horse from the tree it was tethered to, then waved Torres back up the road toward where Jarrod had left his horse.

Torres obeyed, walking slowly. Soon Jarrod was unhitching his own horse, and keeping hold of the lead to the sheriff's horse, he ordered Torres to mount up. Jarrod mounted as Torres did, and he kept hold of the lead to the sheriff's horse. He also kept his gun out. "We're going back to Santa Cruz," Jarrod said, "and we'll likely run into the posse before we do, so if I were you I wouldn't plan on running. There are too many men after you."

Torres simply said, "I will not run."

The set off together, back toward Santa Cruz, but they hadn't gotten a mile before Torres suddenly wheeled his horse and kicked it, heading straight for Jarrod. The lead to Torres's horse ripped out of Jarrod's hand. Jarrod got his horse out of the way, but then he had to go chasing Torres again. All he could think was he had to find some way to get and keep Torres without shooting him, because he knew what Nick and Heath would think if he brought Torres in dead. Nevertheless, Jarrod knew he might not have any choice but to shoot the man, and shooting him while they were both in the saddle was chancy. He could kill him without wanting to. Jarrod kicked his horse into a faster gallop and started to gain on the Mexican. _In for a penny, in for a pound_, he decided.

Jarrod caught up to him in another mile, and he decided to holster his gun and try to tackle the man. He went flying off his horse, grabbing Torres around the chest and pulling him down into the road. The both hit hard. Jarrod lost hold of Torres, but the Mexican had the wind knocked out of him. For a minute they both lay hardly moving in the road, then began to try to get up. Jarrod pulled his gun again, got to his knees and then his feet. Torres was still struggling to breathe and was sitting in the road.

Jarrod saw the horses had gone about another tenth of a mile or so down the road before stopping, grazing. "Get up," he said to Torres, and when Torres didn't move fast enough, Jarrod grabbed him by the shirt collar and yanked him up. "Now we're going to walk to those horses, and you're not going to give me any more trouble, because I will not hesitate to shoot you dead," he said, again in Spanish. "Move!"

XXXXXXXX

When Victoria came into the sheriff's office and found Nick and Heath there, but no Jarrod, she began to feel her legs go numb. When they asked her to sit down, she sat, because she couldn't stand anymore. "Tell me," she said, fearing the worst.

Nick spoke fast. "Jarrod is in Santa Cruz. We caught up to the Mexican there who we think killed Anita Fowler. Jarrod stayed to question him while Heath and I came up here to get an arrest warrant."

Victoria felt relief wash straight through her. "Then he's all right."

"We think so," Nick said.

"You think so?" Victoria asked.

Heath said, "The Mexican escaped. Jarrod's gone after him."

Victoria deflated again.

"Mother, Jarrod assured us he was not going to hurt the man, and I believe him, even now," Nick said. "We'll be heading down there on the afternoon train and we'll find him and make sure he's all right. It's just that – there are some other things you ought to know about."

"Tell me," Victoria said again.

Nick took a deep breath. "Jarrod talked to Fred when Anita was killed. She wasn't his client. She was his lover."

Victoria looked surprised, but only mildly shocked, if at all. She knew her sons were not celibate by any stretch of the imagination. But then Nick looked at the sheriff, and Victoria looked at him. "What else?" Victoria asked.

The sheriff knew he'd have to say the rest, since he was the only one Jarrod had actually talked to. "She wasn't his first since Beth died, Victoria. There were at least three others here in Stockton, and I don't even know about San Francisco. That's troublesome and it sure isn't the way people see Jarrod or want to see him, but alone it wouldn't be such a concern – it appears they were all consensual. But one of the women here was Mary Ann Dorsett, before she was married. Bert Dorsett has found out about it now, and he's started to bad mouth Jarrod around town."

"Whatever she and Jarrod had together ended before she married Bert?" Victoria asked.

The sheriff nodded. "Bert seems to think that he – well, he got used goods. He threw her out and she's left town to go be with her sister."

Victoria hung her head for a moment, then looked up again. "Is there anything more?"

The sheriff gave a look to Nick, who said, "Jarrod's been keeping an apartment here in town we didn't know about."

"Did you or Heath know anything about any of this?" Victoria asked.

Both men shook their heads, and Nick said, "No."

"Well," Victoria said. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Life changed for Jarrod when he married Beth, and when she was murdered. If this behavior is new since she died – well, I don't know what we do about it. He's a grown man. He'll have to deal with whatever the consequences are."

"He needs a good talking to," Nick said.

"I'm not the one to do the talking," Victoria said. "You know I won't interfere in your lives if it's just your business, no matter what you've gotten into."

"But it affects you now, too, Mother," Heath said. "If Dorsett keeps bad-mouthing Jarrod, it could affect his career, and it could come back on us, too."

"Then if Jarrod needs that talking to, I prefer it come from his brothers, not his mother," Victoria said. "He can know that I know, but I won't be lecturing him about his behavior, not when it involves his relationships with women. I'd rather it come from the two of you."

Nick and Heath looked at each other.

Victoria continued, "It seems to me the first thing you have to do is go find him, make sure he's not in bigger trouble than we know, and get this Mexican back here to face charges if that's what should happen. Then you can deal with the rest of it."

"We don't want you to get hurt in all this, Mother," Heath said.

"Heath, do you think I haven't heard my share of invectives about your father's behavior since you came to us?" Victoria said. "We've made no secret about who you are, and I'm proud to tell all of Stockton and all of California who you are and how you came to be and how proud I am that you are now my son. I'm not afraid of whatever Bert Dorsett or anybody else has to say about Jarrod, or about either of you two."

Heath hung his head and smiled a little. He should have known she was going to say exactly what she just said.

"Just go get him and bring him home," Victoria said. "Ream him up and down all the way if you think you should, and let him know that I know all about things if you think he should know that. But I won't be talking to him about it. That's for the two of you to handle."

"All right," Nick said quietly. "We'll be on the afternoon train."

Victoria nodded.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

It was late morning when the posse caught up with Jarrod, in the road about halfway back to town. The sheriff was leading three other men, strangers to Jarrod. The sheriff's arm was free, but Jarrod could see bandage under the shirt.

Jarrod was relieved to have the help. He didn't need to worry about having to shoot Torres anymore. He gave the lead of Torres's horse over to the sheriff, who asked simply, "Is my horse all right?"

"Seems to be," Jarrod said. "We have a few hours to travel."

"Let's get to it," the sheriff said. "Your brothers may be back there before we are."

Jarrod wondered about that, but, "That 48-hour time limit might not mean anything now."

"No," the sheriff said as they all headed back toward Santa Cruz. "I wired your brothers in Stockton. They know you're out here after this man."

That made Jarrod uneasy, because he knew they'd been uneasy about him being out here alone. After Beth, they didn't really trust him when he was after someone he had a personal stake in catching, but maybe now, after this, they would trust him again. He could only hope.

Nick and Heath had not arrived in Santa Cruz by the time the posse got there, but there was a wire on the sheriff's desk, confirming that a warrant had been issued out of Stockton for Torres's arrest. The sheriff dismissed the posse and put Torres back into a cell. He handed him a bucket, saying, "There's your necessary."

Torres got the message.

Jarrod said, "I'm going to go over to the hotel. I have a room there. I need to get some rest. If my brothers turn up, would you send them over there?"

The sheriff nodded. "I expect it'll be morning before you want to start back to Stockton with your prisoner."

Jarrod nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Jarrod went back to the room he'd taken at the hotel, and before long he had cleaned up, undressed and fallen into bed. He was sleeping soundly and it had grown dark when a loud knocking at the door woke up him. Lighting the lamp beside the bed and fumbling his way to the door, he opened it a crack so that whoever was out there could not see he was only in undershorts. It was Nick and Heath, and they were wearing badges. Jarrod let them in.

"We see you got your man," Nick said.

Jarrod closed the door, nodding. "I see you got deputized."

"To bring Torres back," Nick said. "The sheriff said you didn't get him to talk."

"He didn't confess, but I know he killed Anita. Once we get him back to Stockton, we'll have to start putting the case against him together."

"That's not all we'll have to do," Nick said and sat down in a chair next to the bed.

Heath said, "Fred Madden wanted to have a talk with us."

Jarrod didn't have to ask about what. "I see," he said and leaned back against the edge of the bed. He ran his hand through his hair.

"And Mother knows," Nick said.

Jarrod sent a look his way. So much for Fred Madden keeping his secrets private.

Heath said, "Bert Dorsett is bad mouthing you around town. That's why Fred talked to us, and Mother came in in the middle of the conversation. We weren't about to lie to her."

"Of course not," Jarrod said. "She always finds out anyway."

"What's happened to you, Jarrod?" Nick asked. "Or has this kind of thing been going on all along?"

"Nick, don't lecture me," Jarrod said. "Maybe I have been a little more – " He fumbled for the word and could only find, "needy since Beth died. I've handled it the best way I knew how, but I had to do better than Big Annie's. I needed more than – " and he described what it was at Big Annie's that wasn't enough.

"Did you love Anita?" Heath asked.

"I cared about her very much," Jarrod said. "Marry her? No, but she didn't want me to anyway and being Catholic she couldn't get a divorce. What we needed from each other, we got. Torres took it away, but that isn't why I had to bring him in. He took her life away from her. He needs to pay for that."

"And what about Mary Ann Dorsett?" Nick asked. "More of the same?"

Jarrod nodded. "Pretty much. But she honestly fell in love with Bert. Freely and honestly, and we called it quits when she did. And it's been the same with any woman I've been with. Yeah, I guess I loved them in a way. There was a closeness and there was the physical need fulfilled, but I never made any promises to anyone and no one made any promises to me. When the relationship was over, it was over. Anita and I never had the chance to finish it."

"You're not looking for Beth again, are you?" Heath asked.

Jarrod looked up at him. "I'll never find Beth again."

"So you're settling for something in between. Well, Jarrod," Nick said, getting up, "when we get back to Stockton, you're gonna have to deal with Bert on your own, and we'll leave it to you. But if this gets out of hand and affects the family – if any of your goings on affects the family, we're gonna have another conversation. And it's best you get rid of that room of yours."

Jarrod nodded.

Nick and Heath headed for the door. "See you at breakfast," Nick said, and he and Heath went out.

Jarrod heaved a sigh and leaned his forehead against the closed door. The one thing they hadn't talked about – the one thing that would grate on him forever – was what role did he have in Anita's death? Did Torres kill her because she had taken up with him? If he were counseling a client about it, he'd have said the evidence looked like Torres didn't even know about his affair with her, or he'd have tried to kill him too. That was logical. That was probable. But it wasn't a client he was counseling. It was his own soul. He didn't know how to do that. And if Torres never talked, he'd never really know the answer to the question.

XXXXX

They took Torres to the nearest railhead the next morning and caught the train back to Stockton. There wasn't much conversation among them on the train, but as soon as they left Torres with the sheriff in Stockton, Jarrod said, "I'm going to go find Bert and have a talk."

"See you at home," Heath said, and he and Nick went on their way.

Bert Dorsett worked part time at the livery, part time at the blacksmith, and part time at the dry goods store, and Jarrod wasn't sure where he was at the moment. He just went to each place as he came to it and finally found the man alone at the blacksmith shop. Jarrod made sure they were alone. He was uncomfortable that Bert was working at the forge – he could picture a heavy hammer coming his way – but he said, "Hello, Bert."

Dorsett looked up, and then he put the tongs with the horseshoe he was working on down on top of the anvil. "What do you want?" he asked, not friendly.

"To talk," Jarrod said.

"There's nothing to talk about."

"Yes, there is. You need to hear some truth."

"Outta you?" Dorsett said. "Not likely."

Jarrod went on anyway. "Yes, it's true, I was with Mary Ann before you were. She didn't even know you then. It wasn't until she met you that she dumped me."

Dorsett looked surprised at his choice of words.

"Yeah, she dumped me," Jarrod said again. "Because she fell in love with you. It bothered me some, but not much. We knew we weren't in love with each other, but I cared for her. I wanted someone to love her, because she deserved that. It just couldn't be me, and she didn't want it to be me. She wanted it to be you."

"Do you really think I believe that?" Dorsett asked.

"It doesn't matter to me if you believe it or not. I'm just telling you how it was. You think you got used goods or something? What you got was a warm, lovely, caring woman who wanted you, just you. Not me, not any other man in town. Just you. And you're an idiot to throw her away."

"Don't tell me my business," Dorsett said, getting angrier.

"I'm not telling you your business," Jarrod said. "I'm just telling you how things are. You can keep on being an idiot by acting like you're the victim in all this, but you're not. Mary Ann is. She's not guilty of anything except dumping me for you. Because she loves you. And if you have any brains at all, you'll go get her and bring her back because if you don't, you're gonna kick yourself for the rest of your life. That's all I have to say to you, Bert. Say what you want about me to anybody you want, but hear this. Don't you do or say anything to hurt my family. I'll have you for that."

With that, Jarrod turned and went out of the blacksmith shop. He half expected Dorsett to come after him waving a hammer at his head, but Dorsett didn't do it. Jarrod kept on going, and in a few minutes, he was on his way home.

XXXXXX

It was Audra who came flying into his arms when Jarrod came into the house and left his hat and gunbelt on the table in the foyer. "Oh, Jarrod, I'm so glad your home!" she gushed.

"Me, too," Jarrod grinned and kissed her cheek. Then he looked up at everyone else, still in the living room, just looking at him. He didn't know the extent of what his mother and sister knew about his problems in town, and he didn't care to find out. His habits behind closed doors weren't for discussion among the women in his family, and even though he knew Victoria knew about them, he was pretty sure she was never going to bring them up. He hoped the subject was completely dropped now and no one would ever bring it up again.

Nick was at the refreshment table. "Scotch, Jarrod?"

"Yes, Nick, thank you," Jarrod said and joined him there.

Nick handed him a glass, giving him the eye for just a moment. He looked away before he asked, "How are things in town?"

"Fine," Jarrod said. "Just fine."

"Will you have much work to do on this case involving the Mexican man you all brought back?" Victoria asked.

Jarrod came over and sat down in his thinking chair. "Some, but I don't know how much yet. That's a chore for tomorrow."

There was an awkward silence then for a while, before Audra began some idle chatter aimed at pulling her family members out of whatever troublesome thoughts they were having that she did not know about. One by one, her mother and her brothers joined in her conversation, except for Jarrod.

He watched and he listened. He knew that what had happened with Anita, with Mary Ann, and everything associated with them, was going to bother his mother and brothers for a while. There was nothing he could do about that now. What they found out about his life was something he'd leave to them to digest.

He knew they did not know everything there was to know but he was not going to tell them any more. He was a private man, especially about his women, and had always been that way. If they weren't used to it by now, that was for them to deal with. As he listened to them chat among themselves, he spoke to them, silently in his mind. "I am who I am. I'll always do the best I can by you, and I'll always love you, even the times you might find it hard to love me."

He saw his mother look his way, and he could almost believe she had just read his mind. He smiled a little. Victoria lowered her gaze a bit and then went back to talking with everyone else. Jarrod let his smile go. She knew who he was, and even if she didn't like it all, she at least understood. Jarrod knew it was the best he could ask for, and it was going to have to do.

But he wondered about himself and about his future. He remembered how he came to realize and accept, after Rimfire, that he was not the man he thought he was. That younger man was an illusion and was gone. What kind of man was he now? He knew he couldn't go on settling for easy relationships with woman after woman just to avoid the commitment he'd made with Beth and the guilt that followed when she was killed because of that commitment. His behavior might or might not have had something to do with Anita being killed. He didn't know how he was going to live with that if it turned out to be true, but even if he never found out the truth, he knew there was penance he was going to have to do. Penance that would include giving up this parade of lovers and behaving more like the gentleman he once was and should be now..

He rubbed his forehead, drank his scotch, and made up his mind. The private apartment would go, and so would the Lothario he'd turned into. Somehow he would turn his life around again, maybe even find a way to be more like that younger man he thought he had lost. He owed that to his family, to Beth and Anita and all the others. And to his God, and to himself.

The End


End file.
